New Balance Xc-72 Triple Black

XC stands for cross country, and that is the whole argument of this shoe. New Balance built its running reputation on exactly that terrain, from the Trackster of 1960, the first running shoe offered in varying widths, which spread through YMCA fitness programmes and college cross country teams at MIT, Tufts and Boston University. The XC-72 reads that era through a modern lens, a retro futurist take on a seventies racing shape with an exaggerated wedge and a long, low stance. Triple black strips out every period colour cue and leaves the geometry. What survives is a shoe that looks like it came from an alternative version of the 1970s rather than a copy of the real one.